Alan Mauldin

Alan Mauldin is a Research Director at TeleGeography. He manages the company’s infrastructure research group, focusing primarily on submarine cables, terrestrial networks, international Internet infrastructure, and bandwidth demand modeling. He also advises clients with due diligence analysis, feasibility studies, and business plan development for projects around the world. Alan speaks frequently about the global network industry at a wide range of conferences, including PTC, Submarine Networks World, and SubOptic.

I’ve been involved with TeleGeography’s research on submarine cables since 2000. Over the years I’ve fielded numermous questions about the submarine cable industry from journalists, investors, family, and friends.

It seems as good a time as any to provide a compilation of answers to some of the most commonly asked questions.

Yesterday Facebook, Microsoft, Telefonica’s Telxius group announced they are investing in a new trans-Atlantic submarine cable. The MAREA cable will take a unique path from Virginia Beach, USA to Bilboa, Spain. This system will be the third new trans-Atlantic system, following the launch of Hibernia Express last fall and AEConnect earlier this year.

As kids, many of us attached a pair of tin cans to the ends of a long string to create a primitive telephone. Somewhat ironically, modern global telecommunications still functions in a somewhat similar manner.

Reducing the latency (delay) of network traffic between locations has been the focus for financial firms engaged in high-frequency trading for several years, but this is also a goal for gaming companies as well. In a series of blog posts, Riot Games discussed how they have designed their own latency-optimized network. When linking destinations around the world, comparing the latency of the various submarine cables is critical.